Teaching You Again
by NanDeMoNai
Summary: Story not to be continued for certain reasons. Please read Chapter 10.
1. The Worst Joke Ever

**A/N: As promised, this story will be much more cheerful and fluffy compared to _Aishiteru No Jutsu!_ so no worries! I hope you guys will enjoy this as much as you liked _Aishiteru No Jutsu_! if not more!**

**---**

The moon shone brightly through the leaves, causing a mottled mixture of shadows and light to dance upon the floor way down below the canopy of the forest. A gentle wind giggled through the leaves, teasing them to bend and sway to her voice. Soft rustling gurgled as Mistress Wind passed by.

A kunai sliced through the seemingly calm forest and stabbed into an innocent tree. You could have almost seen the poor tree writhe in pain at the sudden assail.

The entire world exploded into a blur of motion. The moaning and creaking of a complaining tree erupted through the once silent night. It fell, causing a huge dust storm to sweep through the area. More blurs.

There was a small puff of smoke that exploded somewhere as a shuriken sliced by a blob of black and orange. There was a roar from another part of the forest as a flurry of needles pierced through a "lion" before it dissolved and turned back into ink.

Four blurs suddenly stopped and congregated together into one spot.

"Is everyone okay?" a voice panted as they stood back to back for protection.

Weapons of all types gleaned in the weak moonlight. There was no response except for three nodding heads.

"Good…" Sasuke shoulders slumped a bit as he deactivated his Sharingan for a second. "Hold on… I need to rest for a bit…" he closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the kunai he was holding onto.

Sai had scrolls out, waiting and ready. His wet brush was hovering above the scroll, waiting to draw in a second's notice. Sakura had her fists up and her green eyes darted about the quiet leaves that surrounded them. Naruto's breathing was quick but deep as he looked about warily.

"Go." Sasuke suddenly ordered and they all sprinted into different directions again. In a matter of seconds, random screams could be heard as many people fell and died. Blood stained the barks of nearby trees and clothing as well as face and hair.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" was heard as the forest flared up with heat and light. Trees were burned and even after most of the flames died down, some still hung onto branches and leaves, clinging onto the fuel desperately. The thick smell of smoke filled lungs and made eyes sting.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" echoed through the place as black and orange suddenly multiplied through the green and burning leaves. Cheerful laughter ran through the air. It was such an inappropriate action right now. Laughing like a child…

"Choju Giga…" was whispered as several birds and lions sprung to life from a scroll. Sai watched them for a few seconds as they scouted out more enemy ninjas.

Several more trees fell as confusion began to thicken. Fire burned enemies that were too close. Those out of range of the four of them were mauled by ink animals. Many were haphazardly teased and killed by shadow clones.

Naruto and Sasuke suddenly crashed into each other. Sasuke glanced at him briefly before returning to the situation at hand, but Naruto flashed him a signature grin. He was obviously enjoying the killing spree… For some bizarre reason. Naruto never really liked the fact that a ninja had to kill, so what's up with the wacky grin?

Eh, oh well. Sasuke had bigger problems to deal with. Many of the ninjas that they were attacking had hidden themselves very well. In fact, there could very well be someone lurking right above their heads, just waiting for an opportunity to ambush them. Like right now…

The Uchiha scarcely had enough time to react when a black shadow suddenly dropped out from a branch above them and brought something down upon Naruto's head. Within that split second, Sasuke's Sharingan picked up many things. Naruto's expression which went from exhilarated to shocked. The maniacal gleam in the man's eyes as he leapt down. The slurring song of the snapping branches and leaves that were crushed. Everything.

"Chidori!" he yelled as chakra accumulated in his left hand but he still wasn't fast enough. There a sickening cracking sound as Naruto fell forward and the man who assaulted him was obliterated with his attack. The forest rang out with the shrill, shriek of Sasuke's attack. A huge, heavy hammer fell from the man's right hand and crashed through many layers of branches and leaves until it finally reached the floor and left a giant dent in the soft ground.

"Naruto!" Sasuke barely caught the boy and held him in his arms, trying not to move so much. That would only further damage him if he was hurt. He felt warm blood run between his fingers as he supported the blonde's back. Naruto's eyes were partly open but he was clearly unconscious. The Uchiha suddenly found himself trembling as he held the blonde.

Sakura had seen the attack and arrived to their spot within seconds. Sai, who was nearby, heard the ruckus and also returned to his team quickly. He had dozens of ink animals to keep enemies at bay.

Sasuke placed Naruto down on the wide branch and allowed Sakura to examine him. The lingering warmth of Naruto's blood still stained his hands. The red liquid didn't stop coming from the Naruto's wound. It spilled over the edge of the branch…

Sakura quickly took care of more critical wounds to keep the blood from flowing freely. After a few minutes of temporary healing to keep the Naruto from dying from blood loss, Sakura looked up at Sasuke and Sai.

"We have to retreat for now. I can't heal him with all the dangers around here…" Green eyes stared up with slight worry.

Sai nodded curtly. "The other teams around here will have to fend off on their own for now… This area is completely demolished anyway. There are only about five more ninjas here."

"There's a small clearing over by that way. It should be safe enough for us to stay at for the night," Sasuke pointed in the general direction of the clearing. "There's a river nearby as well."

"Then we must hurry…" Sakura said quietly. It looked bad. Naruto's skull was fractured in so many places, it was amazing that he was still alive. The two boys nodded and Sai picked up Naruto's body gingerly before they all bounded off, hoping that they would have enough time.

---

Sakura leaned over Naruto's still figure and lifted his eyelid so that she could see his eye. She peered into his own empty gaze before closing his eye again and taking up his wrist and placing two fingers along his pulse. All the while, Sai and Sasuke waited patiently while keeping watch on the area around them.

"This is bad…" Sakura's voice startled the two boys. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap as she gazed down at Naruto's bloodied face.

"What's wrong with Naruto?" Sai inquired. He was not looking at the two of them right now, but still watching their surroundings carefully. Many of his ink animals were waiting in the circumference of the area, but he still did not let his guard down.

"He's not waking up…" Sakura replied quietly. He had long ago cleaned off the blood off of his hands.

"… Is it because he lost so much blood?" Sasuke queried.

She didn't answer but only looked up at him. Her lips pressed together tightly. "We can only hope that that is the reason he isn't waking up… His pulse is fine and his eyes are still reacting to light, but he simply isn't waking up. There is no other reason… Except for that… and…" her eyes looked up away from Naruto's unconscious figure and reflected the light of the moon and her companions, the stars.

Neither of the boys ventured to ask her to continue her sentence. Sai looked back at the three of them out of the corner of his eyes before continuing his duty. Sasuke's gaze fell upon a small patch of grass next to him.

The pink haired kunoichi shook her head slowly. "Either way, we have to go back to Konoha. Naruto is in no condition to fight. And we're all worn out as well." And she was right. Sasuke's eyes were bloodshot, Sai's hand was cramped and bleeding, Sakura's hands were red and raw.

"We'll go back tomorrow morning then…" Sasuke said quietly. "We should set up camp. Sai, it's okay. I think you've worked enough for now. Rest for a bit. Sakura, you too."

Sai smiled gratefully and began to take out his sleeping bag. Sakura hesitated a bit before doing the same. Only Sasuke sat with a kunai in his hand, waiting and watching.

After a half an hour of listening and watching the stillness around them, Sasuke relocated himself so that he was next to Naruto. He let his guard down for a moment and looked at his face.

_It's been such a long time since I've seen his face closeup…_He thought to himself as he touched his blood painted face.

Sasuke's eyes closed halfway as a strange blossoming feeling fluttered from his chest and flooded throughout his body. He placed his free hand over his sternum and felt his heartbeat speed up.

He stood up and walked away from Naruto. He realized. He was scared.

---

Konoha Hospital. Room 17. Two boys. Outside. Outside of Room 17. Waiting. Quietly. Silently. Frightened. Waiting.

Both of them came back to life from their frozen stances when the door slid open and two women walked out. One was Tsunade. The other was Sakura. They didn't appear very joyous. Tsunade looked at the two of them before turning around again and sliding the door close.

"It's… not good news…" Sakura reported, looking at them nervously. She bit her lower lip and held her hands in front of her, rubbing her fingers together. Sai and Sasuke both stiffened when they heard that.

"But he's awake," Tsunade added on, as if that would make the bad news go away. Her clear eyes drilled into their own. Still hands fell to her sides, slightly clenched. "He… He's lucky to be alive, actually. He lost so much blood, but he's fine…" The Hokage hesitated and looked over at Sakura.

The pink haired girl sighed heavily and looked at the floor in front of the two boys. "We've healed all his physical injuries, so he's in no immediate harm… However," the word hung in the air like a deathly premonition, "he has amnesia…"

Was this a joke? The lamest, not funniest joke ever?

"He has the mental capacity of a seven year old. And apparently, that's all that he can remember up to now," Tsunade picked up Sakura's unfinished report.

Because the two of them weren't laughing. This wasn't funny.

"… We're not sure when or if he'll ever remember again though…" Green eyes clouded over.

Not funny at all.

"As far as we're concerned, he is acting like a seven year old now. Everything up to his first seven years of life, he can remember. Anything beyond that…" the Hokage trailed off.

All four of them turned around and looked at the door when they heard it slide open again. Naruto's blue, innocent eyes peered from behind it. He was slightly hunched over, sneaking a glance at all of them. He held the door open tentatively.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked gently, her voice immediately growing softer and her expression becoming gentler. "You should be resting inside." She took his hand when he went over and tried to hide behind her, failing miserably seeing that he was talker than her.

"Sakura-nee-chan… It's too quiet in there… Naruto wants to go outside and play! Naruto is all good now..." He pouted a bit with his lower lip sticking out. He was completely oblivious to the two boys who were staring at him incredulously.

The sixteen year old boy's speech pattern was peculiar. Only small children would talk in third person like that. It was done to show respect and politeness. But… He's not young….

Tsunade shook her head slightly. "You can't play yet Naruto. You'll have to rest a bit before you can do that! You got hurt, so you have to let your body recover, right?" She mustered up a small smile for him.

Naruto put his index finger into his mouth and started to nibble on it slightly, his head bowed in slight shame as he was lectured. After a moment, he lifted his head. Cerulean eyes blinked back at her innocently behind Sakura's shoulder.

Sasuke laughed dryly. It was the only sound that echoed through the silent hallways. "You guys have the strangest sense of humor, Sakura…" he tilted his head slightly and looked at Sakura in the eye, trying to see if she was hiding her smile. She wasn't.

Sai stood there, dumbfounded. His mouth was slightly parted, but no words came from them. His dark eyes darted from person to person, trying to pick up subtle expressions that could tip it off. There weren't any.

Finally, he discovered that Tsunade and Sakura weren't the only ones in the hallway. He glanced at Sasuke and Sai. His eyes held no strand of recognition for the two boys. He examined them for a long time before he stepped out from behind Sakura's back. His hair fell into his face as he looked at them with a lopsided grin.

"Nii-san! What are your names?"

This was the worst joke. Ever.

---

**A/N: Yes, young children (as far as I know, in Chinese and Japanese) do actually speak in third person to show respect and politeness for elders. I do. I'm still young. I'm younger than you think I am. Yeah, scary, isn't it? Scaaaarrryyyy! XD**


	2. Don't Call Me That!

**A/N: Okay. I lied. This story might have some drama and sadness in it. But no character death. That's a given.**

**Brief Credits: Flashback scene was borrowed from the original manga/anime. Since this is _fan_ficion, I obviously don't own any of these characters. I don't understand why people always add that into their disclaimer, when obviously none of us owns any of these characters… Unless they made original characters…**

**---**

"What are your names?"

It echoed. It rang. It stung. It shocked. It hit. Hard.

Neither of the two boys spoke. Naruto tilted his head and frowned a bit.

"Nii-san!" He lifted his right hand and pointed at Sasuke. "You remind Naruto of someone Naruto knows, nii-san. But you look too nice to be him…" Still, nobody said anything. The blonde became more and more curious until he finally turned around to face Sakura again. "Sakura-nee-chan?"

"It's just 'Sakura'… Just call me 'Sakura', remember, Naruto? Remember what I told you?" Sakura gently interrupted his question.

"Oh… But you're still…" he trailed off, his small mental capacity disabling his ability to sift out the facts correctly. "You… You said that you were Sakura-chan? But… Naruto is seven… And you're… sixteen! That's impossible! But… you said that Naruto had… amnesia?" He frowned deeply, obviously confused with all the things he couldn't order correctly. His bottom lip began to tremble and tears started to form in his eyes.

"Naruto… You're sixteen. All of us are. Just call me 'Sakura-chan', like you used to, okay?" The pink haired girl patted him on the head and tried to comfort him the best she could. She looked over at Sai and Sasuke hopelessly.

"Naruto?" Sai's voice made Naruto stop crying and look at him. The dark haired boy pointed at himself and smiled at him. "I'm Sai!"

"Sai-nii—" Naruto stopped and looked back at Sakura. He started again, remembering his true age. "Sai, right? Nice to meet you… again?" His eyebrows wrinkled together as he hastily wiped away the tears that clung onto his eyelashes.

Sai nodded and continued smiling at the boy. "Yes. Nice to meet you again…" he laughed weakly, but Naruto didn't notice the obvious fakeness of it.

"Then… Naruto wants to know your name!" The blonde leaned over to Sasuke, who had been quiet the entire time. The blonde was fascinated by something though. He kept leaning closer and closer into the Uchiha's face until they could feel each other's breaths on the other.

Sasuke didn't back up. He didn't move. He was still slightly shocked. The others stood there watching the two as they reacquainted themselves.

"You have pretty eyes…" Naruto informed Sasuke, grinning widely.

"Uchiha," the boy suddenly spoke up, making Naruto recoil and back away quickly. His eyes were wide in fear at the cold tone in which Sasuke used to reintroduce himself with. "Sasuke."

Those clear blue eyes became even wider when he heard the name. "Uchiha… Sasuke?" Naruto repeated, his hand once again coming up to point at Sasuke. His mouth opened to say something, but before anything came out, everyone watched in horror as his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

"Naruto!"

---

Tsunade shook her head slowly and stepped away from Naruto's bed, pulling up the covers again. "He's lost too much blood. That's why he's having all these fainting spells. He shouldn't have been up in the first place…"

"When will he be able to get out of the hospital?" Sai asked softly.

All of them stood patiently in the room. Naruto had been carried back into his bed after he fainted.

The Hokage shrugged. "For a normal person, I'd say at least a week or two. But because Naruto has Kyuubi inside of him, I'm not sure. If he is lucky, he can get out in three days… However…" There it was again. That word. Everyone tensed up when she said that word, for whenever it was spoken, it usually bore ill news.

Brown eyes swept through the small room as she hesitated to continue with her sentence. "Because of his state right now, I cannot release him until a temporary guardian is given to him… But we also have to try and make him regain his memories… I've heard that provoking memories is best done with people that the victim has interacted with a lot, but I'm not sure… I can only heal physical injuries…"

Sasuke, Sai, and Sakura looked at each other silently. There was a short wordless exchanging of ideas and words between them before Sakura spoke up.

"We'll take care of him. Alternately. We will take on the responsibility of taking care of Naruto until further notice, Tsunade-sama."

"Yes, I'm sure we are capable of taking care of him. Besides, he might be able to remember things more quickly if we were to be with him all the time," Sai pointed out helpfully.

"All of you are still not above the legal age to even _be_ a guardian! You can't even take care of yourselves, much less a boy with—"

"We'll be fine…" Sasuke's sentence was not a "Don't worry about us, we'll be okay" kind of a sentence. It was more of a "Let us take care of him, or I'll become Konoha's second Itachi" sentence.

Once again, Tsunade sighed. "Nothing is settled until Naruto wakes up and we discuss it with him…"

Both Sai and Sakura looked over at the brooding boy and gave him small grateful smiles.

Everyone's attention shifted again when the lump on the bed moved. Sleepy, azure eyes opened and looked up at the ceiling before they slowly wandered over to his guests.

"Eh? Ah… What happened? Why is Naruto in the bed again? Wasn't Naruto outside…?"

"You fainted," the Hokage provided. She gave him a half-hearted smile. He grinned back.

Sai nudge Sakura forward a bit toward Naruto's bed. All of the blonde's attention focused onto the kunoichi. He sat up and smiled at her.

The girl sat on the edge of the bed and stayed silent for a bit before speaking up. "Naruto? How would you like it if you stayed with the three of us for a while?" she gestured to Sai, Sasuke, and herself. "We'll take care of you until you're all better! Would you like that?"

"Yeah, yeah! Sakura-chan is so nice, Sai seems kind as well! I'd love to stay with… you… guys…" His enthusiasm suddenly faded as he remembered Sasuke. He frowned and looked over at Sasuke worriedly.

The Uchiha's gaze went from the floor to Naruto's frightened eyes. He got the message. "I'll be outside for a while if anyone needs me…" he said quietly and exited the room. He leaned on the wall outside of the room, eavesdropping in on the conversation inside.

"… But Sasuke's such a meanie head!" Sasuke heard Naruto whine.

Even he, who was so terribly stoic and unemotional, had to roll his eyes at the blonde's choice of words, though he knew that Naruto had the mental age of a seven year old.

"Naruto," Sakura's patient voice this time, "don't you remember that everyone's different now? We've all grown up. He's changed…"

"B-but, still, Sakura-chan!"

"Come on, Naruto. It won't kill you. Maybe you'll find out that he's even nice that you think! He won't kill you," Sai cheerfully added.

Sasuke cringed at Sai's last sentence. His thoughts momentarily settled onto darker memories before he brushed them away quickly and continued to listen.

"Fine…" Naruto grudgingly agreed. "But if he's mean to me—"

"He won't be," Sakura and Sai chorused together.

"We'd better get him back in here then…" Tsunade said, walking over to the door.

The Uchiha shifted slightly so that it wouldn't appear like he was listening, but he knew that it was pointless. Everyone except Naruto would notice his suspicious position by the room.

When the door opened and Tsunade gestured to him, Sasuke reentered the room. "Has it been decided yet?" he asked curtly, making Naruto bite his lip a bit and cringe.

The pink haired girl nodded. "Yes. He'll stay with Sai first, then me, and on the third day, he'll stay with you. We'll keep shuttling him back and forth unless there is a problem with that. Are you okay with the schedule we set up?"

He shrugged. "It's fine." Something made him want to say as little as possible right now. Sasuke could feel Naruto scrutinizing him again. He didn't look back at him, in fear that he might frighten the boy again.

Suddenly, Sasuke looked up. Straight back into Naruto's strong gaze. He didn't look away. They silently examined each other. Everyone else in the room was starting to get uneasy.

Sasuke smiled.

---

"Here you go, Naruto!" Sai thrusted a small bunch of flowers under Naruto's nose. The blonde beamed at him gratefully. "Do you like them?"

"I really like it! Thank you, Sai!" Naruto, now reverted back into more sophisticated speech, took the flowers and poked at the slightly damp petals. Sai stood off to the side, watching the boy.

"Gee, Sai! Look, they're all out of order! Let me see them, Naruto?" Sakura glanced at the haphazardly thrown together bouquet and took them from Naruto's clutch. She returned them a few minutes later, completely rearranged so that each flower complimented the ones next to it.

Blue eyes looked them over again and he grinned at his pink haired friend. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

She giggled before backing away from the bench where they were at when Sasuke started to walk up to him. Immediately, Naruto's grip on the flowers tightened slightly. He gazed at the dark haired boy apprehensively.

The Uchiha crouched in front of the bench, allowing Naruto to look down at him. "Are you thirsty?" he asked in a surprisingly gentle voice. Sai and Sakura exchanged slightly shocked looks.

"N-no…" Unconsciously, Naruto shrank back until he was leaning on the back of the bench. A serene wind passed by the four of them and made a leaf fall down onto Naruto's blonde hair.

Sasuke stood up slowly, picked off the leaf, and turned away. "Good," he said, discarding the leaf onto the floor. "Because there was only enough for one more drink. And I'm thirsty…" Just to prove his point, Sasuke took a swing from the water container he was holding onto.

The two bystanders both wore an identical "Oh… That's why" face before covering their mouths so that Naruto wouldn't get offended by their giggling.

The whiskered-face boy opened his mouth and a squeak of indignation came out. "You— Eh! Sasuke—"

"What do you want… dobe?" Sasuke turned around and looked at him with an impassive face.

_Uwah, I can't think of an insult for him right now! _ Naruto thought frantically. His face went blank for a few seconds.

--Memory Flashback--

_Oh, wow! Today was the day when everyone was going to be put into teams, wasn't it? Man, Naruto was so excited for this day! He was hoping that maybe he would be able to get into Sakura's team._

"_Team Seven…" Iruka read out from the list, looking up momentarily. "Haruno Sakura…"_

_The pink haired girl brightened. Ah, this was her team now!_

"_Uzumaki Naruto," he continued._

_Naruto shot up from his seat. Lucky! How lucky! Sakura, in contrast, slumped down on her desk dejectedly._

_Iruka cleared his throat the get their attentions again. "And… Uchiha Sasuke…"_

_What? Why him! It was so unfair! Naruto slammed the table._

"_Iruka-sensei! You must've made a mistake!" he tried to complain, but his teacher had curtly cut him off. Humiliating him, actually._

_Then that idiot spoke. What had he said again?_

"_Don't get in my way, dobe…" Oh… That's right. He had said it so calmly and coldly._

"_T-teme!" Naruto had shouted at him, infuriated at the stupid name he was just called._

--End Flashback--

"Sasuke-teme! Don't call me that!" Naruto whined, nearly crushing Sai's gift.

The Uchiha smiled. "Now you're getting somewhere… dobe," he looked at Sai and Sakura before walking away, leaving them abruptly.

The blonde pouted for a good three seconds before he turned around to look at Sai and Sakura questioningly. "Sakura-chan, Sai… What does he mean? I don't get it…"

"Don't worry about it, Naruto," the dark haired boy replied, rubbing his head affectionately. "Tomorrow's going to be your last day in the hospital! Are you excited? I think that everyone's going to come and visit you…"

After that, Naruto began to pay less attention to what Sai was informing him about. He had remembered something, hadn't he? Right now… Huh, maybe he was going to remember things rather quickly then!

---

Naruto laughed cheerfully. He was back in the hospital bed, but indeed, today was the last day he was going to have to spend in the hospital for a while now, unless, gods forbid it!, something went wrong again.

"I hope you get better soon, Naruto-kun!" Lee flashed him a smile that literally went 'ping' and gave him the 'nice guy pose'.

"Thanks, Lee! And you guys too, Neji, Tenten! Thanks for coming here. Sorry I don't really remember who you are though…" Naruto apologized meekly to them.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto! We'll be wishing for your quick recovery, okay?" Tenten beamed at him and started for the door.

The blonde looked at Neji curiously when he only gave him a pat on the shoulder and a brief smile before leaving with the other two. Naruto waved enthusiastically at them as they left.

"Well… That should be everything…" Sakura closed the lid of the suitcase. While Team Gai was over visiting Naruto, she and Sai had been gathering up all of Naruto's few possessions that he would have to bring back and forth between their homes.

"Are you ready, Naruto?" Sai asked as he gave the room a quick look. When the blonde nodded, Sai smiled at him.

"Ne, ne… Lee sure was a bit… weird, wasn't he?" Naruto asked the two of them. Sakura laughed but Sai only silently agreed with himself.

"Lee-san has always been like that…" the kunoichi told him, lifting the suitcase off the bedside table and setting it down on the floor.

"And… And that pose he used?" Naruto imitated it, making a thumbs up sign and grinning widely. Suddenly he froze. His smile faded and his arm drooped slowly.

"N-Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura walked over to the bed worriedly and placed her hand on his shoulder gently. That was all it took to make him snap out of it.

"Is something the matter?" Sai asked.

"Oh!" the boy shook his head vigorously. "No, I'm fine, don't worry, don't worry!" He laughed loudly to prove his point. The other two just shook their heads slightly.

"Hey, hey! Where's that Sasuke-teme at now? It's my last day in here! See, Sakura-chan! I told you he was a meanie! You wouldn't listen to me though! He's probably going to make fun of me or something when I'm over at his place…"

And so, the day slowly ended with the amnesia-stricken boy's voice floating amiably down the halls of the quiet hospital. Tomorrow he would go to Sai's house. And all of us can only wonder if he'll learn anything from his trips…

The sky was stained with a cacophony of red hues and orange strands, much similar to Naruto's hair. Dark blues and purples bled across the sky like water on a piece of paper. The sun yawned and finally went down, leaving darkness in his wake. And later, the moon would wake up and provide her soft rays to everyone else.

Tomorrow Naruto would be at Sai's house… And the day after at Sakura's… On the third, it would be Sasuke's turn to take care of the boy. But where was he anyway?


	3. Picture Perfect

**A/N: Ah-ha… I can't believe I finished this chapter with the time used while listening to Bleach opening and ending songs… Hahah… You guys can thank Lunar Chasmodai for threatening me to work on this or else…**

**---**

"Welcome, Naruto, to my home!" Sai exclaimed as he threw the door open. He stepped aside for the boy to enter.

Naruto removed his shoes and politely said, "Excuse me for intruding…" before going inside. The first thing that he noticed in Sai's house were the walls. Each one of them were covered in pictures. Pictures of nature, people, abstract things, everything.

"Wow… Did you draw all of these, Sai?" the blonde spun around and looked at him in awe. Sai only nodded modestly. "You're so smart!" he beamed at his friend.

"Haha, don't flatter me so, Naruto… After all, you're the one who's smart… In your own way…" He lead Naruto into the living room where Naruto sat down. Sai walked over to a bookshelf and rummaged around in it.

"What are you looking for, Sai?" he asked, peering over to the boy. He began to fidget a bit on the couch. His attempt to peek over his shoulder was futile.

"This." That was all that Sai said before he returned to the couch and sat down next to Naruto. He was holding what seemed to be a picture book. "I don't think you remember… But this was the book that I drew for my brother. Or so it was for him before he died, that is. You helped me finish it."

"Me?" Naruto pointed to himself and scrutinized the book. He watched as Sai opened it to a random page.

"You were the one who made me remember the ending of the story," he continued, flipping the pages back and forth until he finally reached the center, where a dark haired boy and a white haired boy stood, smiling at the two of them.

The blonde stuck out his hands as a request to see the book. Sai obliged and handed it to him. Immediately, the boy began leafing through it. Between exclamations of "Wow, this looks cool!" and "Haha, that looks weird, Sai!" Naruto was trying to remember something.

But no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't…

"I'm so glad that you're my friend, Sai!" Naruto said after a few more minutes at looking at the book. His slender fingers were splayed on the cover as he grinned.

A smile graced the dark haired boy's face. "You taught me that as well."

"Huh?" confusion flitted over the whiskered boy's face.

"Friend." Sai simply stated. "You taught me what it meant to be a friend."

Naruto began laughing. "How could I teach you that? Everyone knows what a 'friend' is!" Amusement filled his blue eyes.

"I didn't." The smile didn't go away.

Naruto's hand grew still on the cover of the book. His smile faded and the lightheartedness that was on his face just seconds ago slid off.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to tell you again. I didn't have emotions before I met you," Sai tilted his head to one side and his smile widened. "But after meeting you, Naruto, you taught me what feelings were and what the word 'friend' really meant. You showed me what was held inside that word."

The blonde looked at him with a strange expression when Sai's hand went up and patted him on the head.

He didn't jerk away.

He didn't take away his hand.

He looked at the other worriedly.

He smiled at him.

"I was raised not to hold emotions. I didn't know what they were. I learned them from a book, and even then, I was only acting. But everyone saw through it. Every time I smiled, they scowled back at me. Every time I said something, someone became angry."

Cerulean eyes clouded over as he listened. He couldn't remember.

"You asked me, 'Do you know the word "friend"?' And I had said yes. I wrote out the word. And I asked you, 'So what?'" Sai stopped and laughed. "You became so angry at me…" Finally, he took his hand away from Naruto's head.

When Sai took away the book and stood up, Naruto looked up anxiously.

"How impolite of me. You must be tired and hungry after that trip. I'll take you out to eat tonight. Does Ichiraku sound good to you?" the dark haired boy asked while his back was still facing the blonde.

Ah. There's something that Naruto could remember. Ichiraku, hm?

"Geck!" Sai gasped when something suddenly constricted his stomach and made him fall back a bit. It took him a while to realize that Naruto was squeezing the life out of him. With a grin.

"Thanks, Sai! I can't wait, I can't wait!"

---

"Old Man!" Naruto called out enthusiastically.

"Hey! Naruto, I haven't seen you around here lately! The usual, right?" Teuchi asked and grinned when Naruto nodded.

Sai raised an eyebrow at him. "How… How can your remember him? You have amnesia…"

"Huh? What do you mean? I remember him! I've been coming to eat at Ichiraku's since I was really little!" the blonde explained as he plopped down on his usual spot.

"Mister? Do you have a picture I can see? About… Nine years ago, though?" the dark haired boy asked when the man passed by them.

"Hm? Why would you want something like that?" he stopped and leaned over the counter momentarily.

"Just… I want to see, that's all," Sai explained politely.

"Lucky you then. I always carry a picture of myself… Hold on," Teuchi went to the back of the kitchen. There was a long stretch of them which consisted of lots of clanging of pots and pans, some crashing of glass, and soft, inaudible curses. After a while, he came back out, looking a bit beat up.

"Here you go. That should be the one from nine years ago," he smiled and handed Sai a small picture.

"Eh…" That was the reaction that Teuchi received when Sai compared the picture with him. "You look exactly the same… Are you sure this is the right one?" he asked, a giant sweatdrop dripping down the side of his face.

"Yes. That's the one. See the date on the back?" the old man gestured at the picture.

When Sai turned flipped the picture around, it was indeed from nine years ago.

_That's why Naruto can remember him. He doesn't look any more different… _Sai contemplated. Dark lines appeared by him as he sat there in shock. He laughed awkwardly.

Teuchi picked up the picture when he returned to place down their ramen.

"Fwut's fwrong?" Naruto gurgled through a mouthful of ramen.

"Nothing, nothing…" Sai lied, eyeing his own ramen strangely.

---

"Sai! Sai! Teach me how to draw! Please?" Naruto jumped up and down, waving around a brush and scroll that he found somewhere from Sai's stack of supplies.

"Oy, hey! Give that back!" Sai frantically chased the boy around. "That's my best brush and the highest quality scroll I have! How the heck did you break through my locks and traps!?"

The blonde only laughed and made Sai run around crazily before abruptly stopping, causing the dark haired boy to crash into him and fall. Some inaudible sound gurgled from his throat as he twitched.

"Hey, Sai, are you okay?" Naruto crouched down and pursed his lips together, poking him with the blunt end of the brush.

"Rawrg!" he yelled, snatching the brush and scroll from Naruto's loose grip and bouncing up again. "Waah… My precious brush and scroll…" Sai scurried away and hid the two of his precious items away. A minute later, he scampered out again and cleared this throat. "Uh, sure, I'll teach you how to draw…"

"Yaaay!"

"No, don't hold it like that… You don't have to press that hard, Naruto…" Sai took his hand and readjusted his grip, then held it as he made gentler strokes over the paper. "See? The ink still comes out when you don't press hard enough to tear a hole in the paper and the table… _And_ the floor…"

"Ah… I see…" Naruto squinted at the scroll. A bunch of squiggles were on the once blank page. "Haha, it doesn't look as good as your's, Sai!"

And indeed, it wasn't. Sai's scroll had an unfinished picture of Team Seven on it. The faces weren't drawn in, but everyone was clearly drawn so that you could easily tell who as who.

"You'll get there eventually, Naruto…" he assured, allowing his ink to dry and looking over to examine the blonde's drawing. "Sha-Sharingan?" he stuttered.

That was what was on Naruto's scroll. Sharingan. Three circles with tails, so to speak. Naruto had rolled up the previous scribbles he had and started anew. The first thing he drew was the Sharingan.

"Sha. Rin. Gan?" he repeated, looking up curiously. "What's that? Is it tasty? Or is it like medicine?" Naruto grinned.

"Ah… Eh, you don't remember though?" Sai couldn't help but to laugh at him. "You drew Sharingan. A bloodline limit."

"Bloodline limit, huh?" his blue eyes misted over before clearing out again. "Nope! I don't remember!"

Sai's rare laughter filled the room as he patted Naruto affectionately on the head. Though Naruto didn't know what was happening, he joined in on the jovial laughing.

---

"Are you tired?" Sai asked quietly as they sat down on the couch. He had not turned on any lights. They just sat there in the darkness. The dark haired boy sensed that Naruto had shaken his head. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"… Something's wrong."

"Nothing…"

Sai gave up and stood up, sighing a bit. "I'll get a spare futon for you…"

Naruto nodded again.

After some brief poking around, Sai was able to find a spare futon and a blanket. Deliberately slowly, he smoothed out the futon and carefully spread the blanket on top. He threw down a pillow onto it.

Naruto wasn't acting right. Was it because of his amnesia? For one whose mental age was seven, he was awfully listless.

"Naruto!" he called, sticking his head out of the room. He was knocked down by an overly hyper blonde kid.

_Never mind having to worry about his well being…_ Sai coughed and sat up, pushing the boy off of him. "I set up your sleeping area," he gasped, standing up clumsily.

"Haha, sorry about that, Sai. I really like going to bed…"

_More like you really like knocking people down and nearly killing them…_ he thought to himself, laughing lightly. "Okay, Naruto… Bed time now…" He shuffled over to his bed and pulled back the covers.

The blonde squirmed under the covers and smoothed them out after making a giant ruckus. He flopped and turned for a good length of time before settling down.

Sai could feel his eyebrows twitch as he listened to the cloth rubbing together as Naruto turned and rolled and shifted about. "N-Naruto…?"

"Eh, Sai? What is it?" Naruto asked, his voice muffled by the blanket he was using to cover his head with.

"Shut up and sleep already."


	4. Flower in the Shadows

**A/N: If the chapters suck, it's because I'm writing this during the opening and ending songs of Bleach. That's like working for about 1 minute and 30 seconds at a time… So, uh, yeah! Sorry about the bad quality!**

---

"See you later, Sai!" Naruto waved enthusiastically at the dark haired boy, who merely cocked his head and smiled a bit. He raised his hand and turned away, leaving him with Sakura.

"Well, we'd better get going, hm, Naruto?" she smiled lightly and walked away briskly, making the blonde have to run to catch up with her. His hair flew around his face as he did so.

"Where to, Sakura-chan?" the blonde asked as he bounded to her, a small pack of his belongings carelessly being thrown onto his back. He skidded to a short stop when he caught up, that smile never leaving his face.

"To buy some flowers!" she replied, just as cheerfully.

"Flowers? For what?" he inquired while taking absurdly wide strides. His arms were tucked behind his head in typical Naruto strut.

"I enjoy having flowers around the house when it's springtime. It's really pretty. Don't you like it… Naruto?" she paused deliberately when they reached their destination.

As expected, it was a flower shop. Or to be more specific, the Yamanaka family's flower shop. Sakura went inside, waiting for Naruto to do the same. He flounced it, causing Ino to look up from the counter.

"Ah… Sakura, here again for some more flowers? And Naruto! How are you feeling?" she asked politely, smiling all the while. The pink haired girl only nodded at her friend before going over to look at the flowers.

"Ino!" he sprinted over to the counter, nearly knocking over some vases in the process. "I'm great! Thanks!" he replied cheerily.

The girl smiled at him. The bell at the door rang and she looked up to see who the customer was. The sun outside didn't allow them to see who it was, except for his silhouette. When he was finally inside the darker room, Naruto's eyes widened.

"Sasuke-teme! What are you doing here!?" he exclaimed, pointing accusingly at him.

"Hn…" his lips went lopsided until his face resembled an emotion of annoyance. Without another word, he turned on his heel and went out quickly again, his hands in his pockets.

"Eeehh…." Ino and Naruto stared at the retreating figure, confused.

"Hey, what's wrong, you two? Huh? What happened?" Sakura walked over to the counter with an armful of flowers.

"Nothing, nothing…" Ino said strangely, quickly counting the flowers and calculating their prices.

After Sakura paid and they had a short conversation, they were about to leave, but when Naruto turned to go, Ino slipped something between his ear. It felt wet and cold.

"Huh?" his hand went to his hair, where the thing was stuck. He felt soft petals brush against his fingertips.

"A flower for you, Naruto," the blonde girl giggled and turned to go into the storage room, leaving them.

He laughed. "Thank you, Ino…"

"It looks nice on you," Sakura said, suppressing a giggle.

The pink lily clashed terribly with Naruto's yellow hair and made him look horribly girly, but the boy couldn't see what type of flower it was, since it was behind his ear.

"Eh…" he tried to pull the flower from his ear, but Sakura stopped him.

"Don't. It's a gift from Ino. Don't take it off.

"Ah… Okay," he answered, leaving the flower be. He hooked his arm with Sakura's and they both left the store.

---

"Sorry, Naruto. My family's out for a while, so it'll just be you and me. I hope you don't mind the emptiness of the place. Usually, it's so noisy I get irritated," she explained as she unlocked the door with the arm that wasn't occupied with flowers.

He shook his head. "Naw, I'm usually by myself at my apartment anyway. I'm used to it, Sakura-chan. It's fine," he chirped, shaking his head. "Excuse me for the intrusion!" he said, removing his shoes and scrambling, making his shoes scatter.

Sakura smiled a bit at the childish behavior, bent down, fixed his shoes, and removed her own as well. "You can explore for a while if you want, Naruto. I'll get the vase for these flowers ready, okay? Just don't break anything!" she called out to him.

"Okay!" was faintly heard as she walked into the kitchen and set down her bouquet on the table. She hummed lightly to herself as she washed out a vase and filled it up with water. The kunoichi carefully arranged the flowers in the vase before carrying it out to the living room.

Naruto was sitting crossed legged on the floor, reading a giant scroll. "Hm? What are your reading, Naruto?" she asked absentmindedly as she placed the vase in the middle of a low table. She crouched down next to him and examined the text.

"Oh, this? I found it on your bookshelf. I think it's called 'Modern Day Scientific Discoveries' or something like that…" he murmured, somewhat interested in the scroll. He looked up when Sakura laughed loudly.

"You're actually _reading_ that monster of a scroll? Mother bought that to make our family seem smarter or something. No one's ever touched it since it went onto the bookshelf. Are you even understanding any of it, Naruto?" she asked. If she had read it, she surely wouldn't have even gotten past the first line of words.

"Eeh… Somewhat," he replied truthfully. "Something about molecular bonds or something… Are you sure these people aren't just making random things up and ripping people off, Sakura-chan?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure either. With something with 'Modern' in its name, it could be anything! Come on, help me with dinner, okay?"

"Yes, food!" he yelled, throwing the huge scroll in the air.

---

"Did you enjoy dinner, Naruto?" Sakura asked whilst rinsing out a dish.

"Ah!" he replied, nodded his head enthusiastically and scrubbing out a bowl with a vengeance.

"Uh, Naruto, you don't have to abuse my dishes…" she laughed and nudged him with her elbow.

"Ah…" he repeated, lessening his death grip on the bowl and scrubbing with less gusto. "Sakura-chan?"

"Hm?" she replied, her mind not quite focused.

"Tell me more about me. How did I meet everyone?"

"Oh… Well, when you joined the Academy, you were the class clown. Don't get mad at me, but you really sucked with everything. Your grades were terrible, your accuracy was backwards, and your speed wasn't anything to brag about," she paused and looked over at him. Well, quite obviously, he wasn't all that happy… "Eh, you want me to continue?"

He didn't say anything but nodded.

"But somehow," she went on, "you were able to graduate from there. And you joined Team Seven… We were pretty weak back then, but you…" she stopped again and laughed. "You were so impatient and loud! We had troubles dealing with you because you were so eager to prove your worth. Eventually, you proved it though, and we accepted you as an equal, but you still continued to strive for Sasuke's acknowledgement. 'Acknowledge me! Acknowledge me!' you kept saying…."

Her voice grew softer as she turned off the water and wiped her hands clean. Naruto watched her and did the same. Suddenly, she smiled at him. "Come on, Naruto. It's late. We'd better get cleaned up and go to sleep! Try to get some more information out of Sasuke or something."

"Eeh!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Tomorrow's his day, isn't it!" he yelled, panicking. "He's going to be so mean, Sakura-chan! Save meee! Uwahh, I don't want to get killed!" Naruto clung onto her sleeve and started dragging his feet, making Sakura have to struggle to walk.

"Calm down, Naruto. He's not a murderer! Maybe you'll find out that he's even kinder than before," the pink haired girl took his hand and made him release her sleeve. Her green eyes darted over to an open window just in time to see a shadow pass by.

Naruto didn't notice anything, but only continued muttering about tomorrow.

"I think you should shower first, Naruto. You'll have to sleep on the couch though. Is that alright with you?" she asked, ignoring the passing shadow.

"That's fine, Sakura-chan!" he snatched his bag from the table and started to dash into the bathroom.

"Ah, Naruto, wait!" she called out to him, and waved him over.

"Huh?" he trotted back to her and watched as her hand came nearer and nearer to his head.

She smiled and pulled her hand back, now clutching onto a slightly wilted pink lily. "You forgot this."

"Ah… It was a pink lily?! Wah, Ino is so mean to me! And you said it looked good!" he wailed and took the lily. He brightened when Sakura stroked his hair.

"It did look good! Now go shower," she told him.

"Oh, right! I forgot I had to do that!" he rushed into the bathroom.

She laughed at his forgetfulness, but didn't move from her spot. The kunoichi stood there for a few minutes in the dark before walking over to get some lights. "Sasuke-kun," she said into the darkness. "How long will you stay in the shadows? Don't you know that it's impolite?"

---

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto called out as he laid in the darkness.

"Hm?" the girl stopped walking away from the living room and turned back. "What is the problem, Naruto?"

"There's no problem… Just…" he stopped. His awkward laughter filled the room for a few seconds. "Never mind, Sakura-chan. I don't think I should bother you now. It's late, isn't it? And I have to deal with Saskue-teme tomorrow…"

Sakura smiled a bit as she heard him growl. "Yeah. It's late. We'll have to rest up for tomorrow! After all, we should live our lives as if tomorrow isn't granted and promised… Right?"

"Ah…" he nodded and she could sense him nodding.

"Good night, Naruto…"

"'Night, Sakura-chan… See you tomorrow morning…" he trailed off and started to snore lightly.

"Geez, he falls asleep so quickly…" she laughed and walked back into her room.


	5. Either the Floor or the Bed

**A/N: Sooo sleepy… Look, it's another chapter! Cool, huh? Yeah, right… Back to Bleach or something like that. Diie from the SasuNaru fluffiness! Although there's probably a lot of unintentional SaiNaru and NaruSaku as well… Ah, yeah, sorry about that…**

** Important Notes!: March 18th is Lunar Chasmodai's birthday! Don't forget to drop by and wish her a happy birthday! Oh yeah... Happy Birthday, Chas!  
**

---

"Uwaah, Sakura-chaaan… Don't leave me with him… Uwaaaaah!" Naruto started tugging on her sleeve again.

"Eh, Naruto, let go now… I have to do stuff too… Come on, I promise you that Sasuke won't do anything!" the kunoichi tried to pry his fingers off, but to no avail.

"Stop bothering Sakura. Let's go, dobe," Sasuke said calmly, dragging him away from Sakura by the back of his collar. A giant dust cloud followed them.

"Sakura-chaaaan… Saave meee…." He wailed and cried, attracting a lot of attention from the people around them.

"Shut up, dobe." The dark haired boy snapped, ignoring the strange gazes they were receiving.

Naruto picked himself up and clamped his mouth closed indignantly, crossing his arm and pouting. He followed the boy grudgingly and took the opportunity to make faces and stick his tongue out at him whenever possible.

"Stop that," Sasuke turned around and looked at him with a sneer on his face.

Naruto frowned but stopped afterwards. _He's such a rude person…_ he agreed with himself. He nodded with a defiant expression on his face. Suddenly, he crashed into Sasuke's back. He hadn't realized that he had stopped.

"Welcome… dobe," the boy sidestepped to reveal an opening gate. The blonde's mouth parted a bit in awe. A gigantic mansion was revealed to him. A sprawling and well maintained yard framed the monstrous house as well.

_Geez, his house is huge! It's not even a 'house'! It's a freakin' mansion!_

"Close your mouth. It's rude," Sasuke ordered him. Once again, Naruto snapped his mouth close and scurried past him, pouting a bit.

"Excuse… something, intrusion…" Naruto muttered, purposefully slurring the words together and kicking his shoes everywhere. Although Sasuke wasn't exactly pleased with his behavior, he said nothing about it.

"Don't go into any of the rooms as of right now. Don't touch anything. Don't do anything… yet…" the Uchiha said, rather coldly. He led Naruto into an enormous living room and motioned for him to sit down at the large table in the room. After he watched the boy sit down, he exited the room.

The blonde felt rather insecure in such a huge place. He wasn't used to something like this at all. In a few minutes, Sasuke returned with a platter with two cups of tea. He set it down onto the table in front of the chair that Naruto was sitting at.

He took one of the ceramic cups and placed it in front of Naruto before taking the other one and sitting. There they sat for a few minutes, allowing the tea to cool. Naruto absentmindedly watched the steam float up and twirl around before vanishing.

"Your turn," Naruto announced, taking a sip from the tea. He nearly spat it out because it was so hot, but he made his face as emotionless as Sasuke's.

"Hn?" Sasuke's eyes darted up and examined his face for any emotion. There were none.

"Your turn to tell me your story," the blonde elaborated. "That's your cue to start, Sasuke-teme."

"I wanted power," he started, actually startling Naruto. "I wanted to kill my brother, Itachi, to avenge my clan. I lost sight of what was right and wrong. And I went down the wrong path. I followed Orochimaru. But once I saw that there was no more that I could learn from him…" he trailed off and stood up again, leaving Naruto hanging.

When he returned, Naruto was fidgeting in his seat. His blue eyes scanned the entire room for anything interesting while he walked back in slowly. It was unnerving, how slowly and deliberately Sasuke was walking.

He placed some snacks in front of Naruto and resumed his seat.

When he started again, he didn't continue from his previous sentences. "I wanted to break all the bonds that I thought were worthless. 'In order to kill my brother,' I had said to myself, 'I must severe all bonds except for that one. Then I will be strong enough to kill him. No matter what, I will avenge my family…'" he stopped and drank deeply from his cup. He put it back down with a small 'clink'.

Dark eyes scrutinized Naruto. "You're not eating."

"Not hungry."

For the third time, Sasuke stood up, taking the snacks with him. There were soft scraping sounds from the floor as Sasuke walked out, his slippers rubbing up against the floor.

_That idiot is doing that on purpose, isn't he…?_ Naruto looked at the retreating back distastefully.

"You." Sasuke pointed at Naruto after returning. He stood at the doorway and beckoned him over. "Help with dinner."

"Uwaaah? I'm the guest though!" Naruto complained. He had helped Sakura because… uh… she was pretty… and… but… But he wasn't going to be helping Sasuke!

"Help. Me. With. Dinner." Cold, dark eyes glared at him. The blonde whimpered and stood up from the table, following Sasuke quietly.

_Wah, Sakura broke her promise… Sasuke-teme is so mean!_ Tears started to from at the corners of his eyes.

"Get out some…" the Uchiha stopped when he noticed that Naruto was close to crying. His nose was all red and his eyes were watery. "Eh… What? Why are you crying?" he took a step closer to the blonde and frowned at him.

"… U… Uwaaah, Sasuke-teme… -teme is so mean to meee! So meaaan!" the boy began crying.

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up. He wasn't used to seeing grown men cry. Especially not Naruto. Actually, he had no idea what to do with him. So he hit him on the head. "Stop crying," he commanded roughly. "You're annoying me…"

Naruto's sniffing stopped. He had halted crying out of fear. He rubbed his eyes and trotted over by Sasuke.

"Get some tomatoes out," the dark haired boy told him.

"T…Tomatoes? Why are we eating that stuff?" his voice wavered a bit, but he attempted to make it steady.

"Just take it out."

"F… Fine." _This isn't fun at all…_

_---_

"I'll… I'll help with the dishes…" Naruto said his voice barely above a whisper.

"No. I'm fine. Go shower first," Sasuke replied, picking up their dishes and bowls.

"Uh… Sasuke? Where am I going to be sleeping tonight?" he asked.

"I'll show you later."

"Oh…" The blonde wasn't satisfied with his answer, but he was too scared to make him elaborate on it. He quietly walked into the bathroom and dropped his bag full of spare clothes.

Upon several instances, Naruto actually got lost in the place. Sasuke had to fish him out from a variety of places. Even he couldn't believe how many times the blonde could get lost. I mean, seven times within three hours seem to be a bit over the edge isn't it? Sure, it's a big place, but that's just ridiculous. It took Naruto five times before he found the bathroom…

He turned on the water and closed the curtain, waiting for the water to get hot. As he began taking off his clothes, he caught his reflection in the mirror. Azure eyes stared back at him tiredly.

… _Look what that teme has done to me now… I'm so scared…_

---

"What? I… I don't want to sleep here!" Naruto screamed loudly.

Sasuke's gaze fell onto him. Naruto immediately quieted. "Would you like to sleep on the floor then?"

"But there's a whole mess of other rooms in this place! I can sleep in those—"

"All of them are empty." The Uchiha walked over to the window and drew the curtain. "Completely empty."

"Then don't you have a spare futon or something? Or maybe the couch will do!" he vainly tried to persuade Sasuke.

"I'm saying it again. It's this or the floor." Briskly, he walked over to the candles and blew them out.

Naruto examined the cold, wooden floor. "But—"

"Three seconds to decide," Sasuke said, sitting down at the edge of the bed, making the mattress sink. "Three."

"Why can't I take the couch, darn it?" he exclaimed over the other boy's voice. He began waving is arms around wildly.

"Two."

"You're such an idiot! Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn!"

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes. "Two and a half."

"I'm going to tell Sakura-chan on you!"

"One."

Naruto froze, but didn't speak.

"Floor it—"

"Fine…" he muttered, shuffling over to the other side of the bed. "Stingy idiot… Giant house and won't even let me sleep in the other rooms…" he murmured softly, hoping that Sasuke wouldn't hear.

The boy only stood up and pulled back the blankets, removed his slippers, and crawled into bed. Naruto stood at the other side, glaring at him.

"Get in," Sasuke said, his back already turned to him.

The bed creaked and moved as Naruto slid in, pulling up the blanket to his chin. He rolled all the way over to the edge of the bed, so that he wouldn't have to be close to Sasuke.

_Why must he do something like this? I mean, everyone has a spare futon, right? Well, I guess I don't… But still, this isn't a good excuse! Stupid Sasuke! Sakura-chan will do something… about it… right… Yeah…_ he thought to himself.

Within a few moments, even his more vigorous complaints faded as he fell asleep. It didn't take long before he began rolling around in bed until he was right next to Sasuke.

Slowly, Sasuke's eyes opened and he turned around, so that they were facing each other now.

"… Ramen?" Naruto vaguely slurred out, his hair sticking to his face. His mouth was wide open as he dreamt about… whatever a guy with a seven year old mind's dreamt about. Ramen, probably.

Sasuke moved his hand out of the blanket and brushed his hair back. He sighed. _Naruto… When will you remember?_ His thumb rested on the side of his face. The blanket rustled a bit when Sasuke wrapped his arm around the other boy and hugged him tightly.

_Naruto…_


	6. The Choice

**A/N: … It's all Chas' fault! If this is bad, it's all her fault! Her and her evil threatening stick of DOOM! (coughcough) **

---

Sasuke had woken up a long time ago. He had time to brush his teeth, wash his face, change… three times, make breakfast, eat breakfast, sit on the bed watching Naruto sleep for an hour… and then some, and he was still watching. Five times, he tried waking Naruto up but stopped before the blonde actually awoke.

Finally, he leaned over to the blonde again.

Ah… that sleeping face looked so calm and serene. His mouth was still slightly parted. The Uchiha hesitated and lifted his hand to Naruto's chin. He pulled down so that the blonde's mouth was opened wider.

Closing his eyes, he leaned down and kissed Naruto. How long has he wanted to do this? His eyes opened slightly in hesitation before he continued.

_This is wrong… But… I don't care…_

_Hm… What's this taste in my mouth?_ Naruto was still half asleep when he thought that. He could feel the warmth of the blankets around him, but his thoughts were still muddled. He felt someone shake his shoulder.

"_Naruto… Wake up… You'll be late to get over to Sai's house… Breakfast is ready…Naruto…"_

_Such a gentle voice… I don't want to wake up yet…_ The boy furrowed his eyebrows and attempted to turn away from the coaxing voice.

"_Naruto… Dobe… WAKE UP, DOBE!_"

"Gack!" He bolted upright and blinked a few times. He looked around and saw Sasuke standing by the edge of the bed staring at him with dark, emotionless eyes. His arms were crossed as he frowned at the disheveled boy.

"Hurry up," he said, his voice completely different from the one he had used just a while ago. Sasuke began to saunter away from the bed and exited the room.

"Huh?" Naruto scratched his head and pulled off his night cap. He ran his tongue over his mouth. He smacked his lips a few times. They were wet.

_What _is_ this taste?_

---

"Good morning, Sai!" Naruto ran over to the boy, who was waiting for them at the bridge where Team Seven usually waited at. The stream ran steadily under them, paying no heed to the trials of time.

"Oh, Naruto! Good morning! Good morning, Sasuke-san," he smiled at them and waved a bit.

A wind tousled their hair. Spring was gentle this year, as it usually is.

Sasuke nodded at them and left quietly without saying goodbye. He took a long look at Naruto before leaving though. His eyes caught with Sai's for a moment before he looked away and walked away.

"So how was your day over at Sasuke's?" Sai asked the blonde cheerfully. He pretended not to notice Sasuke's knowing gaze.

"Eh…" Naruto's eyes narrowed into slits and he waved his hand around as if trying to wave someone off. "Him? He… Where'd he go?" he turned around and discovered that Sasuke was no longer there.

"Hm… I wonder…" Sai turned around with a small smile. "Come one, Naruto, I think today would be a good day to meet up with some of the people you remember again." He changed the topic abruptly and started to walk.

"Oh! Ah, wait for me! Who are we going to see first, Sai?" he bounded right next to him, his pack bouncing along.

"Hm… Let's see… How about…"

---

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto crashed into the empty classroom, causing the surprised teacher to nearly fall off his chair. A paper fell from his hand.

"Ah, Naruto! Sai," he nodded at them after straightening out quickly. He rapidly retrieved his escaped paper.

"Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei!" he chanted, perching on the desk somehow. The blonde grinned at his former teacher. His head was tilted as he smiled.

_I thought bringing him here would cheer him up. After all, he did go to the Academy when he was seven… Still, I wish there were more people he remembers… This will be hard…_

"Ah, Naruto, what are you doing here for? Just to leech off me and get me to bring you to Ichiraku or something, hm?" Iruka laughed and ruffled up his hair playfully.

"Mm… Iruka-sensei?" Sai walked over to the desk where the two were chatting at.

The teacher looked up inquiringly. "Yes, Sai?"

"Do you think you could watch Naruto for me just for a while? There's something I have to take care of and I don't think Naruto would appreciate sitting still for a long time. It's just for a bit, I'll come back later to pick him up," the boy asked.

"Hm, well I don't have any more classes for today, so I believe that's okay, Sai," Iruka nodded at the boy.

"Aw, Sai, where are you going?" Naruto jumped off the desk and began clinging onto his sleeve.

"Nowhere, Naruto. I don't want you to get bored with me, so stay with Iruka-sensei for now, okay? He'll watch you for a bit. Sorry for not playing with you!" Sai waved at them and exited the room.

---

"Hm, Sai, you're finally here," Tsunade looked up from her desk.

"Sorry, I had to leave Naruto with Iruka-sensei first…" he rubbed the back of his head and apologized.

"That's alright, as long as you're here. Take a seat, please," she gestured at the empty seats.

Sakura and Sasuke watched him silently as he sat down.

"… Well, I'm sure that everyone here knows why I've called you up here, correct?" the Hokage laced her fingers together and leaned on the desk.

All three of them nodded.

"As perfect as your plan of shuttling Naruto back and forth between your houses, there is a flaw to it," she sighed and sat back into her seat. Her dry sarcasm made Sasuke's eyebrows twitch.

"As we all know, there's no way that all three of you can support him throughout your life, if that is how long it takes for him to regain his memory. I've thought of several different options that you three can choose…" Tsunade looked at the three of them in turn. "My best bet is to send him to an adopted family… Although sending him to a care center is not such a bad thing either…" she paused and tapped her chin with her index finger.

"No."

"Hm?" the Hokage looked up and saw that Sasuke had half risen from his seat. The other two were looking at him as well.

"No. He won't be thrown away like that…"

"Then is there any other option? No one can take care of him forever. You three have your own lives to get through. You'll all grow and find a family as well…"

"Then I will take care of him."

"Sasuke-kun, you can't do that! As a ninja you can't be taking care of him! He'll burden you, no matter what!" Sakura furrowed her eyebrows together. She looked remorseful. "If I had a choice…"

"Then I'll make that choice for you, Sakura," Sasuke sat back down.

"Tsunade-sama, can't we just take care of him longer? He still might be able to remember!" Sai pleaded.

She couldn't possibly make Sasuke take care of Naruto for so long, could she? That would ruin his job as a ninja…

"If you three continue stalling, there's no use. Eventually… You'll have to make a choice. And though Sasuke is willing to sacrifice his time… It still isn't a reasonable one. I can't just let him take on the full responsibility of taking care of Naruto… None of you are of legal age to become a guardian…"

They sat there in silence for a while. Sakura began to shake her head slowly. Sai's hands became fists in his lap. Only Sasuke continued gazing at Tsunade calmly.

"Sasuke… Are you sure? If…" she trailed off, not quite sure how to continue.

He blinked, his gaze still unwavering. "Yes… I'm sure."

Once again, Tsunade sighed. Her hands spread across the desk as she sat there with her eyes closed. "The paperwork will take at least another week… You guys will have to take care of him for that long."

Sasuke licked his lips and brushed back his bangs. He looked outside of the windows and watched the sky grow orange and red. A few stray clouds hung suspended in time.

"There's no turning back, Sasuke… Remember that."

---

"Naruto!" Sai poked his head back into Iruka's classroom. He looked around before he found Naruto draped across a desk, apparently asleep. "Oh…"

"He became tired after pestering me for an hour or two," Iruka explained as he straightened out a stack of papers. A pen was tucked behind his ear as he stood up. "It's time for me to go home now."

"Thank you for watching him," he thanked, smiling at the man.

"It's no problem. It was actually quite nice to have him over… Rather nostalgic… Don't you think?" he smiled back and strode past him silently. The door slid open and closed again.

Sai stood there and watched as Naruto slept.

_What will happen now, Naruto?_

---

"Hm?" Naruto woke up after a while. He found that he was being carried by someone. The streets were dark as shadows followed them. It took him a second to realize who was carrying him. "Sai…"

"You're awake. That's good," the boy said as he walked slowly.

"You took so long, Sai," Naruto pouted and complained.

"I know. I'm sorry for making you wait."

"It's okay," the blonde yawned.

"You're still tired?" Sai laughed at him.

Naruto frowned deeply at the joke. "Hmph…"

"Sorry Naruto, I'm too tired to make dinner tonight. Do you mind have ramen again?"

The triumphant yell that followed after that statement nearly made Sai go deaf.

"I'll take that as a 'No, Sai, I do not mind having ramen tonight,'" he chuckled.


	7. Laces and Ribbons

**A/N: Uwah, the internet is down! I can't watch Bleach anymore! Such a shame! I even did my homework early so that I would have more time! Stupid internet!**

---

The cloth in Sakura's hand rustled as she moved a bit. She glanced up at the clock. It was time. She folded the dress in half and stood up, making sure all the needles were in the right place.

She locked the door and stepped out into the gentle embrace of spring. The wind played in her hair, making strands fly about her face, teasing her and laughing. Sakura took in a deep breath and enjoyed the wonderful morning.

When she reached the bridge, she found that Sai and Naruto were already there, waiting for her. She quickened her pace into a jog and waved at them.

"Hey! Sorry, I'm late!" she stopped and smiled at them.

Sai and Naruto returned her grin, saying that it was fine. They were there early anyway. This time, Sai and Sakura looked at each other quietly, but didn't say anything. After a few moments of Naruto chattering away to no one in particular, Sai excused himself and left him with Sakura.

"Are we going to the flower shop again today, Sakura-chan?" he asked excitedly as they walked down the warm streets of Konoha.

She shook her head. "No, not yet. The flowers we bought the other day are still fresh."

"Then where?" his blue eyes shone with anticipation for the day.

"Home. You can help me with something," Sakura continued walking.

"Eh? Help? With what, Sakura-chan?"

She laughed a bit. "You'll see."

Naruto kept the silence away with his insistent but comforting talking. Half the time, Sakura wasn't really paying attention, but only nodded or made a small sound of acknowledgement when Naruto asked her something. It didn't take long before they were in front of Sakura's house again.

The pink haired girl sighed. "I don't know what's wrong with my family. Every single time they hear you're coming, it's like they purposefully leave the house or something…" her sentence ended in a carefree laugh.

"Maybe they're just busy?" Naruto asked while getting ready to take off his shoes.

"Maybe," she replied, unlocking the door and entering the quiet house.

"Excuse me for intruding," the blonde said once more as he went inside.

_He's so much calmer now. What have Sasuke and Sai been doing to him?_ She asked herself humouredly.

"Uwah, this is a pretty dress, Sakura-chan! Is it your's?" Sakura heard while she was still removing her shoes. She walked into the living room, where she had folded the dress. Now it was being held up by Naruto.

"Nope. It's supposed to be for Hinata. I'm just not finished with it yet."

"Hinata? You mean that weird, shy girl, Sakura-chan?"

She couldn't help but to laugh at his description of Hinata. "It depends on how you see her," she said. "By the way, Naruto…"

"Hm?" he put down the dress carefully and looked at his friend.

"That's what you're going to be helping me with," she reported.

"Huh? I don't know how to sew though…" Naruto rubbed his head, confused.

She walked over to him and picked up the dress, unfurling it until it shone with the morning's light. It looked quite nice even though it was only half finished. Her hand rested on the lavender silk.

"That's not what I meant," Sakura told him while fiddling with some of the lace. "You're going to be my mannequin."

"Eh, you mean…" his usual smile turned into a pout rather quickly. He crossed his arms and turned his head away rebelliously. "Noo, Sakura-chan! Not even for you!"

"Not even for me? How about… for Hinata?" she tried persuading him to work with her. Even though she could do it without someone wearing it, it was much easier to deal with if there was.

He faltered. "She's nice… But I'm not getting in a dress for her either!"

Sakura brushed away her pink hair from her face. She feigned deep concentration. "Well then, how about Sasuke?" an amused grin flitted in her emerald eyes.

This time he really faltered. He began sputtering and waving his hands around. "For that teme? Why? I wouldn't do anything for him!"

"Why not?" a deep voice made Naruto halt and turn around slowly.

Naruto faintly heard Sakura sigh and say, "Saskue, for once can't you just be normal and come through the door? They're made for that reason, you know…"

"What? What's wrong with coming through the window? It's always open anyway," he said calmly as he leapt into the room and strode over to the other two. He looked at the dress. "This is what you wanted help with?"

Sakura looked at them sheepishly. "Yeah, I really need to finish this by tomorrow. I promised Hinata I'd finish it by then, but I sort of… forgot…" Her face brightened almost immediately as she clapped through the cloth.

Sasuke and Naruto sweatdropped.

---

The Uchiha sighed exasperatedly as he held up a pin cushion in one hand and a variety of thread in the other. His situation wasn't as bad as Naruto's though. On top of a stool he stood, indignantly glaring down at the two of them as they circled him slowly.

Purple silk fell past his knees all the way down to his ankles. Lace was meticulously being added and fixed at the hem of the dress. He couldn't even fold his arms since "that would crumple the fabric and give it wrinkles" so he was reduced to frowning and glaring at the other two.

Miscellaneous ribbons kept getting into Sasuke's face and eyes as he followed Sakura, choosing out the right needle or color of thread whenever requested. His face did not hide his annoyance. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was set in a firm frown.

Only Sakura was cheerfully adjusting the dress accordingly. She told them all sorts of gossip, though most of it was useless and neither of the boys were interested. Sometimes she spoke through the needles that she held in her mouth. Her fingers touched the fabric tenderly as she pierced various threads and pieces of lace through. Ribbons were continually being added, much to Sasuke's displeasure.

It seemed to be eternity before Sakura was satisfied. By that time, it was late afternoon. "Okay, Naruto, you can come down now," she told him cheerfully, nearly stabbing Sasuke with a needle as she absentmindedly poked the pin cushion.

Gratefully, Naruto hopped off, muttering, "Finally I can get this thing off…" He began to untie the ribbons when Sakura stopped him.

"Wait. I need to see the overall effect of it. Twirl for me."

"T-Twirl?" his seven year old pride could not support such embarrassment. Especially in front of Sasuke.

"Twirl." The word was said with a 'disagree and I will personally make your life living hell' look and a sweet smile.

Grudgingly, Naruto took in a deep breath and twirled around in false enthusiasm. He stopped as the fabric fanned out around him. He even had the liberty to curtsey a bit and smiled pleasantly at them before scowling and looking disgusted.

"Well, I certainly like it!" she placed a finger on her chin. "Now for some male critique! Sasuke, what did you think of it?"

"… Looks fine…" he muttered, bowing his head and stuffing the pin cushion and array of needles into Sakura's sewing kit. A deep blush was on his face. As soon as Naruto began to twirl, he felt a bit lightheaded.

"Then that's that! I'm done with it. Naruto, you can change back into your clothes now…" Sakura told him.

Naruto yelled enthusiastically since he was finally able to change back.

"I'd better get going," Sasuke murmured, standing up abruptly.

"Wait, Sasuke! It's lunchtime. Why don't you join us? I'll make lunch for us! As thanks for torturing you two like this," she laughed lightheartedly.

He remained silent for a bit. Finally, he nodded.

"Lunch for three it is!"

---

"… You didn't say anything about a picnic, Sakura…" Sasuke said testily as he was being dragged along with Naruto.

"But it's such a nice day! I'm sure everyone's tired from all of that, right?"

"Sakura-chan… Why didn't you invite Sai instead?" Naruto nearly tripped at their speed.

"He said he was busy… I tried getting him with us as well, but he declined…" she stopped suddenly, as if to drown herself in regret for a while. "Well! There's nothing we can do about that!"

"Itai!" the boys exclaimed as Sakura suddenly started racing down the path again.

"This seems like a nice spot, doesn't it, Sasuke, Naruto?" Sakura let go of the boys. Both of them immediately began to shake their hands vigorously. Geez, she sure had some death grip.

"Ah, yes, it does, Sakura-chan. It looks very nice!" Naruto said, smiling through his pain.

"Hn," Sasuke breathed out as he stuffed his throbbing hand into his pockets again. He strolled over to where Sakura was spreading the cloth.

"Here we are! Sandwiches… More than enough to feed you two," she laughed. Her laughter filled the still air like a wind chime in the breeze. It made them all relax.

"Thanks," the boys mechanically said as she gave them their sandwiches.

Sakura gazed at the trees around them. The sun was strong, but not too uncomfortable. From the shade in the tree, they were fine.

There were a few small conversations during their lunch. Most of them were made for Naruto's sake. They were for invoking his slumbering memories, but he only took them as casual chatting between comrades and didn't seem to remember much.

It was getting late before the three of them decided to leave. Sakura took the basket and stood up tiredly. Her face no longer held her earlier cheer. Naruto took one look at her face and his eyes widened.

_Why does she look so sad? So… lonely… So desperate…_ Naruto's eyes rolled back again as he collapsed. He never felt his head impact with the ground though.

--Memory Flashback--

"… _If saving Sasuke means working along side with you, then I will…" It was Naruto's voice, but it wasn't filled with childish hopes and yells. It was so serious and ominous. His low voice rang through his ears._

_Naruto could see Sai's stunned face before he walked away. Sai stood there, dumbfounded, as if the words Naruto just said were in another language. As if he couldn't understand._

_The trees in front of him began to blur as another memory surfaced._

_Pink filled his vision. The sounds of sobbing reached his ears before his vision cleared. _

_Sakura was crying… Why was she crying? How terrible she looked._

"_N-Naruto… I couldn't bring him back…" she cried, her voice breaking. "Naruto, if there's someone that can bring him back… It's you… Please, please, bring him back… Bring…" the name that she said buzzed out as his memories interrupted each other again._

_The roaring of a waterfall blocked out most of his senses until he could see again. There was a dark form in front of him._

"_Sasuke!" Naruto could hear himself scream._

"_What do you want… Usurotonkachi?" Sasuke turned around and looked at him. How frightening his face was. Half of it was covered in strange marks, and his left eye was yellow._

_This wasn't the Sasuke he knew. He may have been an idiot, stuck up, and a jerk, but this wasn't him. This wasn't Sasuke… _

_Sasuke…_

--End Flashback--

"Sasuke!" Naruto jolted upright, his face wet with cold sweat. His breathing was fast and erratic.

"Naruto, Naruto… Calm down…" Sakura quickly rushed into the room.

The blonde looked around. He was in Sakura's living room again. The couch was underneath him. A blanket was on the floor where it had been roughly kicked off in Naruto's nightmare.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" she asked gently, kneeling over to the edge of the couch, touching his forehead to feel for a fever. There was none.

"Wh... What happened, Sakura-chan? Weren't we… at the…"

"You passed out all of a sudden. Sasuke carried you back… You've been sleeping ever since, but you kept moaning and turning in your sleep. Do you feel alright?"

He nodded uneasily. "I'm fine…"

She stood up uncertainly. "I'll get you a glass of water then…"

_What was that? It seemed so real… Did all that stuff really happen to me?_


	8. Familiar Taste

**A/N: I ate s'mores the other day. They were good.**

**Other special notices/requests: I would highly appreciate it if people would please stop telling me to "Update soon!" As much as I know you guys want more, I can't work well under pressure like this. To tell you the truth, I get irritated when I see that. Since many of you put it here as an afterthought and it is usually in every single review you give, I will still wish that you guys stop urging me that. I will allow five, maximum FIVE, 'accidental' reviews or PMs telling me to "Update soon!" before I stop this story completely. Yes, the circumstances are the same as Itai!'s so be careful!**

**---**

"_Is he okay?"_

"_He should be fine. He has a slight fever though… And he didn't really sleep that well last night. Kept getting nightmares…"_

"_I see… Should I come back later to pick him up then?"  
_

"_Yes, that's fine. I'll call you again when he wakes up…"_

Naruto heard voices. Two voices. One was female, and the other was male. He, through his dreaming state, recognized the female voice as Sakura's. The other one was deeper, more monotone than most voices. His mind deciphered it as Sasuke's voice.

His eyes cracked open. Why was he feeling so dizzy right now? The first thing he saw that morning was a retreating back. Sasuke's back. Something inside of him clenched. Something made him feel awful. It was as if that boy would walk away from him and never return again. Strangely, to Naruto, it felt like he has felt this before. This feeling of being abandoned… by Sasuke…

"Sasuke!" he cried, stumbling off the couch. He ran over to the boy rather precariously and hung off his back, suddenly sobbing. He couldn't understand why he was crying. He hated him. _Hated_ this boy. He was so mean! But why was he crying? Why was he hugging him? Why was he begging him not to leave him?

The Uchiha nearly fell back when something pulled him back. Sakura turned back and looked at them. She was leading Sasuke to the door when Naruto suddenly assaulted the boy.

"Don't leave… Don't leave, Sasuke… Please don't leave…" Naruto muttered into the boy's shoulder, wetting the fabric. He could barely stand up.

"Naruto…" Sakura said quietly, her eyebrows furrowed in worry. He shouldn't really be up right now.

Sasuke kneeled down so that Naruto wouldn't fall. He turned so that Naruto was now clutching onto the front of his shirt. Tears kept falling from the blonde's eyes. Sasuke's face became oddly gentle. "I'm not going anywhere, Naruto…" He held the boy carefully as his crying subsided and he began taking small gasps of air.

"Sasuke… Don't… go…" he murmured, exhausted all of a sudden. He fell asleep in Sasuke's arms, still muttering the boy's name.

The dark haired boy looked up at Sakura. "I'll take him home for now…"

"Ah… Please take care of him. Kyuubi should take care of his fever soon, but still…" she trailed off. Sasuke understood.

He nodded and shifted so that Naruto was on his back now. Carefully, he made Naruto's arms go around his neck and supported him with his hands on his thighs. "I know," he replied and bade her goodbye.

Sakura stood on the steps as she watched the two of them leave. She sighed. "How hard will it hit you when you finally remember, Naruto?"

---

"Uh?" Naruto woke up after a while. His face was still slightly wet from his tears. He felt himself being carried again. Sasuke's scent comforted him somewhat. Even though he had only spent one day over at Sasuke's he could already remember that smell.

"Awake?" Sasuke asked in a low voice.

Around them, Naruto could hear the quiet conversations of people on the streets. That was comforting as well. The familiar chattering of the people of Konoha. "Ah…" Naruto confirmed Sasuke's question. "I feel dizzy, Sasuke…" he murmured into the boy's neck.

"You have a fever, that's why. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine tomorrow," he assured the blonde.

"I know… I've always recovered from everything in a day…"

"Do you know why?" Sasuke asked him as they walked down the street.

"Huh? What… Not… really," he replied weakly. Naruto could feel Sasuke nodding slightly.

"I see…"

"Hey, Sasuke?"

Dark eyes peeked at him from the corner of his vision. "Hm?"

"Let's go buy some… marshmallows!" Naruto's energy level peaked a bit when he suggested that.

"… Marshmallows?" Sasuke repeated to him, just to make sure that was what he said.

"Yeah… marshmallows… And graham crackers… And chocolate… Let's make something good to eat today…" his voice grew fainter and he swallowed a cough.

Naruto heard Sasuke mutter something about, "It's just because you're sick that I'm letting you buy whatever you want…"

"Hehe…" Naruto smiled and fell asleep again.

---

"Dobe," Sasuke called out softly, shaking the slumbering boy's shoulder slightly.

Blue irises peeked out from heavy eyelids when Naruto awoke again. "Teme…" he said vaguely, "Don't call me that…" Naruto could have sworn he heard Sasuke chuckling.

"Here, drink some water first." He handed him a cool glass of water.

Naruto weakly held it and took a sip. He shivered as the cold liquid went down his esophagus and settled in his stomach. The blonde handed back the nearly full cup to Sasuke again. He nuzzled the back of the couch with his cheek before coughing.

The Uchiha wasn't pleased with how little he was drinking, but there was no way to force him to drink anyway… Except for one. "Dobe, I bought the stuff. Want to make s'mores now?"

Naruto became energetic all of a sudden. "Yeah!" he yelled before slumping down again. "Dizzy… Throat… hurts…"

"I know," Sasuke brushed back his hair gently. His dark eyes lingered a little too long on Naruto's face.

_Why is he being so nice to me? If he's really like this, then maybe I'll actually like him better… Maybe Sakura-chan wasn't lying to me…_

"I'll make them for you, okay? Then you can have some," Sasuke told him.

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes again. He couldn't remember if he fell asleep or not, but his sense of time was skewed anyway. Some time passed before he was awakened again, this time to the sweet smell of marshmallows and chocolate.

He opened his eyes when he felt the side of the couch sink down and the smell grow stronger. Sasuke was sitting next to him, holding a plate of s'mores. Naruto summoned up a grin.

"Since you have a sore throat, you really shouldn't eat too many, okay?" Sasuke warned him, holding the plate out of the boy's reach.

"Ah…" Naruto said, acknowledging the warning but not really thinking about keeping that in mind. He took one s'more when the plate was offered to him. The cracker crumbled when he took his first bite. Sasuke didn't really seem to care if crumbs got on the floor and couch.

A faint smile was on the dark haired boy's lips as he watched Naruto look more alive as he ate the sweets. Eventually, Naruto would get thirsty from eating so many marshmallows.

"Sasuke?" Naruto stopped eating his s'more when he noticed that Sasuke himself was not eating anything. "Why aren't you eating?"

There was a short silence. "I… don't enjoy eating sweets."

Naruto's face fell. "How could you not like sweets?"

Sasuke looked at him, puzzled. "I… just don't."

"Well, you're weird!" he declared, stuffing the rest of the s'more into his mouth.

"Your face is all sticky with marshmallow," Sasuke unhelpfully pointed out.

"Oh…" Naruto lifted a hand to wipe off the sticky remains.

"Eh," Sasuke called out. "Don't. That will only make it worst."

"Fine, then you clean it up for me," the blonde frowned at him and let his hand fall.

The Uchiha sighed and pulled out a tissue from the box on the table in front of the couch. "Don't move," Sasuke commanded.

Naruto nodded briefly.

Sasuke leaned over to the boy. "Okay, this won't really work…" he said after finding out that twisting his body in such a strange angle was actually painful. Sasuke stood up from the couch and stood in front of Naruto then leaned down again, tissue in hand.

The tissue hovered over Naruto's cheeks when Sasuke suddenly stopped. His eyebrows furrowed and his eyes grew angry.

"Uh… Sasuke?" Naruto asked, suddenly scared at the expression that overtook Sasuke's face. "What's wrong?"

His face softened again, but something peculiar gleamed in his eyes. "Nothing. I just realized that the tissue won't be very effective either." Without another word, Sauske pressed onto Naruto's smaller body and began licking his cheeks.

Naruto squirmed and squeaked. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed, trying to push him off, but to no avail.

"Cleaning you," Sasuke replied, nibbling a bit at a piece of marshmallow.

"Oh." Naruto's body relaxed after he realized what Sasuke was doing. He actually felt better now that he knew that Sasuke wasn't going to eat him alive or something. How childish. The only reason he was panicking was because he didn't know what Sasuke was doing to him. Weird.

Sasuke's breath became faster and his hands clutched at Naruto's shoulder. He was practically sitting on his lap now. Naruto just stared at the face that was so close to his now. Sasuke's dark eyes were almost completely closed, giving him the look that he was high or something. His mouth was open as Sasuke continued to lick him.

_Huh. I never knew that licking someone could be used to clean up… I should try that sometime. Then again, Sakura-chan keeps telling me I shouldn't lick my fingers. Why is Sasuk-teme doing this then? Strange._

Naruto's eyes widened when he felt something go into his own mouth. His breath hitched and he began to struggle again. He turned his head away so that Sasuke was breathing harshly down his neck. "Sasuke-teme! How are you cleaning me that way?" he complained.

"Not cleaning you anymore…" Sasuke said, somewhat breathlessly. "Kissing you…"

"Kissing—"

Naruto never got to finish his question because Sasuke suddenly took his chin and made his head face him again and began to kiss him again. Something was strange about how Sasuke was acting.

The blonde continued to stare into Sasuke's unfocused eyes. He just sat there, pressed against the couch while being kissed. All of a sudden, a new light got into Sasuke's eyes. They cleared.

The Uchiha snapped back and stood up again, his face red. "Excuse me," he said abruptly and darted away.

Naruto stared after him.

_Y'know, through all the sweetness of the marshmallows, I swear I've tasted this taste before… So familiar…_

---

Sasuke wrenched open the bathroom door and went in, slamming the door closed again. He slid down to the floor, his breathing still rather quick. He shook his head violently and stood up. Walking over to the sink and looking into the mirror, he stared at his reflection.

He breathed out deeply and turned on some cold water. He washed his face with it and turned it off again. Water droplets dripped off his heated face as he clutched the edge of the sink, shaking slightly.

After he calmed down a considerable bit, he began to get his thoughts in order. His eyes closed.

_I can't do that to Naruto… I'm just kissing an innocent child. He didn't even realize what I was doing… This is wrong… So wrong… I can't… _Here, in the middle of his thoughts, he laughed. _I can't just go molesting him if he doesn't know what's happening…_

Sasuke grabbed a towel from the towel holder and wiped his face dry. He straightened out his clothes again before opening the door and stepping out. When he returned to the living room, Naruto was watching him intently.

He cleared his throat, rather embarrassed. "Naruto," he called out, walking closer to the boy, "it's getting late. You should wash up and get ready for bed. Brush your teeth clean tonight or you'll get cavities."

Naruto grinned at him. "But Sasuke just cleaned me, right?"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched and he turned away quickly before Naruto noticed his rising blush. "T-That doesn't count. Go now, okay?" he stammered, picking up the unfinished plate of s'mores off the table and waving the boy off.

He smiled when he realized that the glass of water was empty.

---

"Oh… Naruto, I forgot to tell you something," Sasuke said as he pulled back the covers and went under them.

"Hm?" Naruto bounced on the bed, causing Sasuke to become agitated, before scrambling under the sheets as well.

"Sakura and Sai invited us out for a 'Team Seven Reunion Party' or something. You'll get to be with everyone tomorrow," he said, staring at the ceiling.

"That's nice," Naruto's voice was already become less hoarse. Kyuubi was doing a good job. "I'm happy then…"

"Hn…" Sasuke replied. The bed stopped moving after Naruto halted his turning around. He was noticeably closer to Sasuke this time.

_If Sasuke is so nice from now on, then he won't be such a pain… He's a good friend…_ Naruto thought to himself.

Sasuke had nearly fallen asleep when he felt the bed move. Naruto was moving.

"What's wrong, Naru—"

This time, it was Sasuke's turn to get cut off. Naruto was straddling him now. His mouth was pressed onto his, and his tongue was _definitely_ in his mouth. When Naruto pulled away, Sasuke's eyes were wider than ever.

"What was that for?"

Naruto licked his lips and sat on Sasuke's stomach a while longer before replying. "I _knew_ it! That taste _was_ you! I remember waking up a while ago and having a weird taste in my mouth… Then you kissed me this afternoon… I knew I tasted that somewhere before! That means you've kissed me before?" the blonde pointed at him accusingly with one hand and wiped his mouth with the other.

Sasuke turned his head away from Naruto's gaze. "So what?" he muttered.

"Nothing." Naruto's answer surprised the Uchiha.

"Nothing?"

"Yeah, well, if it's okay to kiss, then it's fine, right?"

Dark lines appeared next to Sasuke's head. _But…It _isn't_ right to kiss another boy…_

"Besides," Naruto continued, getting off Sasuke. "I sorta like it. 'Night, Sasuke!"

The last part made Sasuke even more shocked.


	9. Please Tell Me Why

**A/N: You guys… Have two and a half more reviews left before I cut this off! For eternity! Why two and a half, you ask? Well, one of the reviews told me to "continue soon" but not to "update soon" so there's a half. This is what happens when people don't read the Author's Note, y'know. Two and a half more! Remember this. If by chance, some people still tell me to "update soon" two and a half times more, and I halt this, only the following people will get to read the last chapter: Lunar Chasmodai, mangafilipina, and ****Chikin-ass-hair Uchiha**** because they were the only ones who didn't annoy the heck out of me (well, mangafilipina did, but she'll probably pester me to death if I don't let her read the ending) and they actually gave me nice reviews, darn it! XD Yeah, yeah. Cross your fingers and hope that no one urges me to "Update Soon!" anymore…**

**In short: Two and a half more review before I kill this! And no, PMing me like crazy will not make me send you the last chapter of this unless your name was mentioned above. And _no_ if I cut this off, I _won't _ever put this up on the net. I'll email the three people the chapter, but I won't let the general public read the last chapter!**

---

"Sakura-chan! Sai! Sasuke! Come on guys! Hurry up!" Naruto was standing on top of a hill, looking down at them. He was yelling at them to walk faster than the crawl they were currently at.

Sakura sighed. "He still has that energy…"

"Is it worst? Now that he's a seven year old?" Sai asked. "I mean, when he was sixteen, at least he knew when to be serious."

All three of them laughed together as they climbed up the hill slowly. They were in no rush anyway. They smiled at Naruto when he waved at them enthusiastically. His fever was completely gone now. Kyuubi was definitely useful in situations like that.

Sasuke trailed after the other two with a basket behind his back. Sakura had packed another one for them. He breathed in deeply. Spring was nice this year. The sun wasn't strong enough to fry his skin and make it peel. That, for one, was nice.

"Haha, slowpokes!" Naruto teased as he jumped around them in circles, grinning widely. "Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! What did you make this time?" he asked, starting to pester Sasuke, since he had the basket in possession.

"Calm down, dobe, or I'll starve you," Sasuke said in mock annoyance.

Naruto poked him a few times before prancing off to mess with Sai, who had just sat down. Sakura walked over to Sasuke and began to set out everything in the shade. It was Sai's job to keep the hyper blonde out of their hair while they cleared the area.

"Did you draw anything new, Sai?" Naruto inquired the boy as he leaned back on a tree. Sai shook his head before pointing at the sky in an attempt to make Naruto calm down. The blonde stared at the passing clouds for a few minutes before going insane again.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, did you hear about the new construction? It's been going on for a couple of months now, but I haven't heard of it until recently because of our missions and stuff…" Sakura informed as she smoothed out the edges of the blanket.

Sasuke shook his head. "New information as well. I don't go around looking for news that often," he said dully. He began to take out the contents of the basket. A vein twitched on Sasuke's forehead as Naruto began to yell loudly for no apparent reason.

"Huh? Construction? Can we go see it?" the blonde had obviously ditched Sai and had scrambled over at the mention of something new. His eyes shone with curiosity.

"It might be dangerous, Naruto," Sai called over from his resting spot, rather relieved that Naruto left him alone for the moment.

"Aw, but maybe it'll be cool!" Naruto whined, wringing his hands together.

"What do you think, Sasuke?" the pink haired kunoichi looked at him.

"Hn," was his only reply.

"Eh, who cares about what Sasuke-teme thinks? Yay, we're going!" Naruto concluded by himself.

Sakura and Sai could merely laugh at the boy. Sai picked himself up and strolled over to them where he sat down. Everyone received a handmade sandwich and some juice to go with it.

Naruto plopped down by Sasuke. Awfully near to Sasuke. Sai and Sakura exchanged glances but politely said nothing about it. They chewed on their sandwiches quietly.

"Sasuke-teme! Look! Look how pretty that butterfly is! Oh, and those flowers! I really like flowers when they're just blooming like that," the blonde cheerfully gushed to his friend. "And the trees are finally getting green again!" he pointed at the trees and spoke through a mouthful of bread. "It's so lovely… I like spring, Sasuke…"

"Hn…" Sasuke watched him out of the corner of his eye, carefully chewing and swallowing his sandwich.

---

"Hey, hey! What do you think they're going to make?" Naruto asked the three of them as they strolled around the work area. No one really seemed to mind them. All of the workers were too busy with their own stuff anyway.

"Hm… I'm not sure, but I hope it's a new clothing store!" Sakura giggled. Her green eyes looked around at all the workers who were cutting up plywood and hammering them down.

"Maybe it'll be a new ramen shop… But I'll always stay loyal to Ichiraku's!" the blonde exclaimed.

"… It looks like they're building a plaza or something," Sasuke pointed out. The work area _was_ rather large, after all.

Naruto began to complain about Sasuke's "weird logic" and jumped around, twirling a few times, and stomped the ground.

"Still hyper… You wonder when it'll ever run out, huh, Sasuke?" Sai said quietly as the two of them slowly followed them. He had a faint smile on as they carefully maneuvered around the area, careful not to knock anything over or cause any disruption.

The Uchiha nodded solemnly. _Why am I the one still holding onto the basket?_ He thought to himself absentmindedly.

"Uwah, look at the Sakura-chan! Isn't it cool how they carry up that giant stick of wood?"

"Er… That isn't a stick of wood, Naruto…" Sakura laughed at him.

The blonde tilted his head at her questioningly but didn't say anything about it. His blue eyes turned to Sasuke and looked at him. "Sasuke-teme," he called out, raising his hand and waving the boy closer.

"Hn?" Sasuke looked up from his deep contemplation.

"Is there anything left in the basket to drink? I'm thirsty…" he complained, standing there with his hands on his hips.

Sakura and Sai passed him as they stood there. They chatted idly as the distance between the two groups became larger and larger. After some rummaging around, Sasuke looked up.

"Sorry, dobe. There's nothing left. If you want, I'll buy something for you to drink. There are some shops behind us," he offered, sticking his thumb behind his back.

Naruto's lips pursed up together into a slight pout. "That'd be nice, teme. Thanks!" he smiled then realized that Sai and Sakura had ditched him. "Come back soon, okay? Sai! Sakura-chan! Wait for me!"

The dark haired boy sighed slightly and turned around. Naruto was such a handful sometimes. He could still hear him yelling at his teammates as he ran. And some distance that would be. Sai and Sakura had walked rather quickly and now there was a long ways off from Naruto.

_Tat. Tat. Tat._

Around them, the sounds of the construction filled the air. The men would sometimes yell out orders or other miscellaneous things to each other. Hammer against nail, nail into wood, wood into wood.

_Screeeeech. Thunk. Crick, crick, crick_.

A pulley was being pulled up by some rope. It was probably the "giant stick of wood" being pulled up to the higher levels of the construction.

_Creeeeeaaak. Cruck._

"Hey, what's wrong with the pulley?" Sasuke heard distantly from the area. He was already rather far off from the site when he heard that.

"Watch it! The rope's snapping! Kids! Get out of there!"

_Snap._

Sasuke turned around. The rope snapped? His eyes widened. Naruto was still running toward Sai and Sakura. Another pair of dark eyes and a pair of green eyes watched in horror as Naruto ran under the falling wooden beam.

Sakura's mouth opened in a silent scream of terror. Sai's eyes held fear. Sasuke couldn't move. He felt his own mouth part.

It seemed like eternity as the beam fell. Workers who had heard the warning had already scrambled away, not noticing the boy that was running.

_Creaak. CRACK. Thud. Thudthudthud._

"_Naruto!_"

---

That same foreboding atmosphere hung in the air today. It was that same aura that hung in the air when they were informed of Naruto's amnesia. But this time, it was much, much heavier.

The beam had barely hit Naruto's head. But there was so much blood. So much… So red. So bright…

The three of them had reached there quickly. Thankfully, the beam had rolled away after it fell. Naruto's eyes were still open, but they held no light in them. Sakura had located his weak pulse. Sai had ran off to get Tsunade.

It seemed like forever before the Hokage arrived. Her coat whipped in the air as she ran toward them, staring at the dismal situation. Sasuke and Sakura hadn't moved Naruto's still form in fear of hurting him further.

All of the workers had assumed a rough circle around them. Sakura was crying. Sasuke was shocked.

They had brought him to the hospital with little hope for his survival. For hours, the light for the operation room did not turn off. For hours, Sai, Sasuke, and Sakura waited outside, pacing, worrying, and in Sakura's case, crying.

For hours they waited. For hours they stared. For hours they stood outside.

And it was hours before the light went off, and seconds later that Tsunade walked out, looking exhausted. She looked at them with her brown eyes. Her mouth parted, but no sound came out.

She cleared her throat and tried again once more. Her voice was so soft, so soft, that they had to lean in closer to hear her. "… He…" She stopped and examined them with her eyes again. "Miraculously… He's not dead… However…"

Once more, that word. That word that always chained together other words. Words that mean ill fate. Words that bring forth terrible, churning feelings. That one word that followed her hopeful news. Three syllables that made all three of them strain even more to hear.

"However… He is in a vegetative state. He seems aware of his surroundings, but simply cannot respond to it in anyway…"

_Why?_

"There's… nothing we can do. Except to wait. To wait for him to recover. Once again, there is no set time. It could take years or decades for him to become fully responsive. Or he could never recover…"

_Why?_

"… He's still fragile right now, but his skull is fine, and all the internal bleeding has stopped. We'll transfer him into a room, and you three can visit him then…"

_Why? Please… Please tell me why…_

She looked down at the floor. The air sparkled with tears. It filled with the quiet sounds of unsheathed sobs. It shimmered with broken hope, like shards of glass. And it shook along with the shudders of their cries.

_Please, please… Kami-sama… Tell me why this keeps happening to Naruto…_

"Sasuke," she called out with a wavering tone.

Sasuke's empty eyes looked back at her.

"Since you have already agreed to take Naruto under your name and become his legal guardian, I must ask you once more if this change will affect your decision?" It was terrible to be asking this at a time like this, but something this serious had to be solved immediately.

_What did Naruto do to deseve something like this? Why doesn't it happen to me?_

"No… It hasn't changed… I'll take care of him…"

_I don't understand… Why you must do something like this to him…_

_Please tell me._

---

**For those who were too lazy to read my A/N at the beginning of the chapter, you guys only have two and a half more chances before I stop writing this story. This is the second to last chapter too! The following three will have the honor of reading the ending if somebody screws up and didn't read my A/N last chapter: Lunar Chasmodai, mangafilipina, and ****Chikin-ass-hair Uchiha****. That's all. Thank you.**


	10. I'm Sorry, Everyone

Hey guys, sorry to report, but I'm stopping to write fanfics for now. I've realized how stupidly selfish I am because of a few rather kind people who, even though they were infuriated at me, took out the time to smack me on the head and tell me to shut up. At first, I didn't think about anyone else, but because I was mad, I snapped at all of you. It was idiotic of me and I aplogize deeply to everyone. I hope that you will forgive me, though I know many of you will not give me your forgiveness, and I'm sorry for that as well. For everyone who has been reading my stories for so long, thank you. For everyone who enjoyed my story enough to urge me to "update soon", I'm sorry and I must thank you.

NVB, Strawberry, Tsubahime, StaplersBreak, thank you for giving me what I deserved. I'm sorry for upsetting everyone so much.

I'll work on my temper some, since I'm such a brat. I obviously cannot work under pressure and I cannot keep the contract that I kept with everyone to complete stories no matter what. I'll take StaplerBreaks' advice, and I'll stop writing because I seem to be too conceited for such work. I'm sorry again everyone. I hope everyone will find some other person's work to read! And I hope you'll enjoy it much more thoroughly than my own selfish works. Hoping that you have a nice day, everyone!


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